The Gulf Time Newspaper One of the finest business newspapers in the UAE brought to you by our professional writers and editors.

  TEHRAN / AP Iran’s defense minister said on Wednesday that his country recently carried out a missile test, days after the White House said it was looking into reports of an Iranian ballistic missile launch that may have contravened a UN resolution. Gen. Hossein Dehghan was quoted by the semi-official Tasnim news agency as saying “the recent missile test ...

  CAIRO / AP An American lawyer says hundreds of Yemenis with US visas are stranded in the tiny African state of Djibouti because of President Donald Trump’s ban on entry for citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries. Lawyer Julie Goldberg told The Associated Press on Wednesday that “these are all the children, parents and the spouses of US citizens.” She ...

  LONDON / AP Britain’s House of Commons is to vote on a bill authorizing Prime Minister Theresa May to start European Union exit talks — the first major test of whether lawmakers will try to impede the government’s Brexit plans. Wednesday’s vote comes after two days of debate, in which many government and opposition lawmakers said they would respect ...

  SEOUL / AP Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday that he won’t run for South Korea’s presidency, a surprise announcement that removes a key figure from the scramble to replace impeached President Park Geun-hye and further stirs the country’s already tumultuous politics. The withdrawal of Ban, who had been considered the only major conservative contender, boosts liberal ...

  DHAKA / AP Rohingya Muslims in Bangladesh are worried about a government proposal to relocate them to a low-lying island deemed not ready for people to live there. The proposal briefly posted on a government website last week said a committee including representatives of the border guards and other agencies would prepare a list of hundreds of thousands of ...

  Ukraine / AP Freezing and nerve-shattered residents of an eastern Ukraine town battered by an upsurge in fighting between troops and Russia-backed rebels flocked to a humanitarian aid center on Wednesday to receive food and warm up. Heavy shelling of government-held Avdiivka, just north of the rebel stronghold city of Donetsk, began over the weekend and persisted into early ...

  Abu Dhabi / WAM The UAE’s non-oil foreign trade stood at AED1.172 trillion during the first nine months of 2016 (January-September), compared to AED1.170 trillion in the same period in 2015, showing a 0.1 percent growth. Preliminary data of the Federal Customs Authority (FCA) indicated that the share of imports in the UAE’s total non-oil trade amounted to AED721.2 billion, ...

  Dubai / WAM Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) honoured top performing SME exporters. The companies were recognised for demonstrating outstanding export performance during the last nine months of 2016 in the following categories: company with the highest export value, company with the highest number of export markets, company with the highest number of Certificates of Origin issued, and ...

  Dubai / WAM Experts from the governance, risk and compliance, GRC, communities across the MENA region will converge in Dubai next week for a dialogue with neighbouring countries that share the same risks, challenges and regulatory outlook, at the 11th Annual MENA Regulatory Summit. Co-hosted by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) and Thomson Reuters on February 5-6, the summit ...

  Dubai / WAM Dubai’s low-cost carrier flydubai reported total profits of AED31.6 million ($8.6 million) in 2016 with total revenue reaching AED5 billion ($1.36 billion), jumping 2.4 percent compared to the same period in 2015. The airline also recorded a 14.4 per cent increase in passenger numbers last year, carrying 10.4 million passengers over a 12-month period compared to 9.04 ...